The Casual Heretic's Shield Host

[Casual Heresy]

Greetings fellow guardians of the Throne.

 

Back in the dim and distant past, I, like many others picked up the Talons of the Emperor boxset when it was first released and later the first Custodes codex with a few models to build an army. But for a long time I struggled to put together a list I liked and was enthusiastic to paint so they have languished in the pile of potential. I was all set to skip Custodes for another edition and maybe sell the handful of models I had on.

 

And then the leak with the big lore change happened.

 

I know it was controversial change (and not a debate for this thread), but it honestly inspired me. So a dig in the boxes to pull out what I have plus the battleforce box and I have a 2k army of Adeptus Custodes to paint!

 

 

I've decided to paint them as a mix of shield hosts for the sake of variety. The foot Shield Captain and Custodian Guard will be in the standard red and gold of the 10,000. I settled on Shadow Keepers for the Terminators as I liked the idea of them materialising to haul away a dangerous prisoner or relic and I think the Allarus armour  would fit with that better than non-terminator Custodes.

 

 

I settled on Aquilan Shield for the Wardens as I thought that would fit the fact the unit is better with an attached character.

 

Jetbikes are my favourite unit in the codex. It was the story of Shield Captain Bayezara and her shield company of grav vehicle riding Emissaries Imperatus from the new codex that inspired me initially so all the bikers and their captains will be from that Shield Host. The OOP Forgeworld Stormcast head pack 2 are a good fit sizewise for Lady Custodians so I've used those to mark out my version of Bayezara (1st pic) and her 2nd in command.

 

 

It's currently not a tournament winning list, but so far I've had fun with it in two games. The first was a narrow loss (43-47) against index Chaos Marines, and the 2nd a win (60-20) against the new Chaos Marine codex last weekend.

 

Currently, I'm aiming to have all these models fully painted by the end of July. I'm not allowing myself to think about expansions yet but I would like to add grav tanks and Agamatus Custodes eventually so I can field a full grav riding host like Bayezara company in the codex story. But also I will eventually add more and varied units so I can field a force in 30k as well.

[WAR]

Looking forward to your progress.